Summary
The Eleanor Rose Foundation launched website ‘Elliesfriends.org’ in October 2015, to encapsulate the spirit of Ellie Jeffery who lived her short life to the full, and whose popular blog ‘Written Off’ had the tag line “Making the Big C Smaller.” Ellie’s Friends is a portal which enables adults living with cancer to access free or discounted products and services in their area, often ‘treats’ such as theatre trips and hotel stays, to help offset some of the psychological and financial impact of a cancer diagnosis. Since launch the website has given away 1,000 individual ‘freebies’ and has more than exceeded its service user and service provider targets.Challenge
Being diagnosed with cancer is just the start of an incredibly difficult experience – there are so many pressures that are rarely mentioned: the financial impact of having to give up work, paying for trips to the hospital, healthier food; the eternal boredom and depression that sets in during recovery from chemo. Positive experiences or ‘treats’ such as a night out at the theatre or a beauty treatment often have to be sacrificed once cancer is diagnosed.
Objectives
To enable adults living with cancer to access free or discounted products and services in their area via a website. To engage with a broad base of UK businesses to encourage them to sign up as ‘service providers’.
Solution
Funds that had been raised by individual supporters of The Eleanor Rose Foundation were able to secure one part-time team member to administer the website and its offers. It was agreed that part of the administrator’s role would be to capture feedback from users about their experience of offers, in order that the service providers would be able to appreciate the positive impact of their donation, and in order for the charity to assess its success in meeting users’ needs. Initially piloted on Facebook, and in consultation with a group of cancer patients, the ‘Ellie’s Friends’ website went live in October 2014. It was decided that adults living with cancer should ‘sign up’ to the website and prove eligibility by providing a doctor’s letter. Pre-launch, there were 75 active users on the Facebook page, all of whom converted and signed up to the website. The ‘Ellie’s Friends’ website went live in October 2015.
Results
At launch in October 2014 we had 75 users with the aim of doubling this within a year. In October 2015 we had 303 users (fully approved who have supplied medical documents) and a further 441 who had completed the first stage of the registration process. Pre-launch we had five service providers who were offering freebies via our Facebook page. We wanted to increase this to 20 within a year. In October 2015 we had 44 ‘active’ service providers live on the website. We have calculated that over a year we have given away 1,000 individual ‘freebies’ or ‘offers’ to our users. We are paving the way for a sustainable future and extending our reach throughout the UK by growing our volunteer ‘friend finder’ force – from zero in 2014 we now have 67 volunteers who distribute flyers and contact local businesses on our behalf, and we engage with Macmillan and oncologists throughout the UK to inform them about our services.
Learnings
The average service user registered on our website applies for 9 offers or freebies, and about half of our website traffic is returning visitors. Users spend on average 4 minutes 30 seconds looking at the website each visit. We engage regularly by phone and email with our users, with a survey every six months.
Evaluation
We have achieved lasting long-term commitments from a number of service providers including The London Eye, the Aquarium and Decca Records and Heat magazine, all of whom supply monthly freebies. We are growing public awareness and accessibility with other cancer charities and other support groups, by cross-promoting their efforts on social media and in person. We feature on many cancer charity and support groups’ websites, such as the Maggie’s Cancerlinks website under ‘financial assistance,’ which we believe is testament to running a good service valued by people living with a cancer diagnosis. Google Analytics analysis tells us that we have had 4,640 applications this year from individual users to receive a freebie or an offer, so clearly demand outstrips supply, and our next phase needs to focus increasingly on growing relevant service provider offers for our users. We are focusing on developing long-term relationships with service providers; of the 73 who have signed up this year, 44 are still ‘active’ on site.
